Full disclosure: This is the first chapter of this fanfic I've struggled to write. I totally get why many fanfiction stories go unfinished—it's pressure. I've really enjoyed that people like/love this story, but admittedly that makes me want to not disappoint. It's a lot easier to say screw it than it is to actually finish. But by all means keep the high expectations coming—as much as it's a curse it also feels really damn great! My response to reviews is at the bottom this time.
Also wow, over 10 % of the total views of this story came today, it's kinda crazy that most likely the story will hit 11k tonight. Thanks again everybody.
Victoria Chase was shaking. Her world was collapsing around her in a spectacular way and there was not a thing she could do about it. First she professes her love for someone she spent the past several months calling hipster trash, then said hipster trash ran out on her, then she had to go missing.
She was worried about Max for far more reasons than her feelings for the petite brunette. Max had gone through so much already, and now to go missing after her big break in San Francisco just seemed like the horrible type of nightmare you hear about in the news. Victoria was having none of that, no one would hurt her Max, even if she didn't want to be her Max.
Victoria whipped out her cell phone, ignoring Kate and Ms. Grant who were busy doing their own things to try and find her. She sent a group text to everyone on her floor.
Victoria: Not to sound alarmist or anything, but have any of you heard from Max?
Dana: No, what's up, isn't she with you?
Taylor: No, sorry Tori.
Juliet: Um, thought you were with her, is something wrong? Need me to investigate?
Courtney: Ew, no.
Alyssa: Haven't talked to her since the Vortex Club party.
Brooke: Sorry, no. Warren says he hasn't either.
Stella: Has something happened?
When she didn't get the response she was hoping to find from anyone, she sighed and sat down on the bed and looked over to Ms. Grant.
"As I expected, police can't do anything at the moment, but I've notified Max's parents. They haven't heard from her and aren't having any luck getting through to her either," Ms. Grant told them. "Technically she's an adult and had every right to separate from us, but I'm worried that neither of you ladies know where she went. Anything you can tell me about what happened before she left Victoria?
Victoria felt Kate's eyes on her. Taking a deep breath she says, "I think I upset her, but I don't know why that would cause her to just disappear like she did."
Ms. Grant nodded and went to the room phone to call to the front desk.
Kate came over to Victoria and put an arm around the pixie-haired blonde. "Come on Victoria, you know this isn't your fault in any way at all."
"So? I feel like it is, that Max wouldn't be gone if it weren't for me."
Kate's other arm wrapped around Victoria. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a worrier?"
Victoria smiled for just a moment and laughed. "It's been brought up a few times."
Ms. Grant hung up the phone a few minutes later. "I've talked with hotel security and they're going to see what they can tell about her from their systems. In the meantime I want you two to stay put."
A frown crossed Victoria's face. "No. We're going out looking!"
"We are?" Kate asked, a bit unsure.
"Yes. We know the galleries that Max wanted to check out, I say we go there and flash her picture and ask if anyone has seen her."
Ms. Grant frowned now too. "Well, you two are here of your own accord so I can't stop you. Check in every half hour at least?"
Kate looked a little more enthusiastic. "I'll be on that."
With that decided the three women parted ways. Kate and Victoria hailed a taxi. It didn't take long, mostly a flashing of the plastic for Victoria to convince the driver to stay with them for as long as needed.
They went back to the most obvious place to look—Zeitgeist.
When they walked in they noticed that the same girl from last night was manning the welcome counter this morning.
"Excuse me?" Kate said a little timidly for someone on a search and possibly rescue mission.
"Yes?" the girl responded before looking over. "Oh, you two were the ladies here with Miss Caulfield last night."
"That's right," Victoria responded. "She hasn't been here this morning has she?"
The girl shook her head, "I've not seen her. I wanted to actually give her some good news. An offer has been made to buy her picture if she's willing. Mr. Lee wants to put it on the cover of a magazine."
Both Kate and Victoria looked rather impressed by this. "Wow!" was Kate's only response.
"Thanks. We got separated and thought she might come back here." Victoria scribbled her number on the pack of a pamphlet and handed it to the girl. "We think her phone may have run out of power, so if she does could you call me."
A look of worry crossed the girl's face. "Yeah, sure. I hope she's alright, and tell her to give us a call later."
The girls nodded and headed out to the taxi and their next destination.
The same thing happened all over. They flashed Max's picture around, and of course got no one who had seen her. They left a lot of numbers but not a single one ever called back.
It was 4:30 in the afternoon when they decided to head back to the hotel. Ms. Grant had long been able to confirm that Max had left the hotel on foot at around 11 the night before, but nothing after that point.
The taxi pulled back up at 5:20 and they got out. Victoria didn't even notice or care how much the day's taxi ride cost. Money was the least of her concerns. The two girls, defeated in their search for Max went over to Ms. Grant, who gave them reassuring hugs.
"I'm sure she's fine ladies. Watch, she'll probably pull up in the next taxi that comes through here."
"Wouldn't that be weird," Kate said as a taxi pulled up.
"Yeah, weird," Victoria echoed.
The taxi opened and its passenger got out.
What the fuck?
Ms. Grant couldn't have been more right as the three women realized it was Maxine Caulfield who got out of the Taxi. Both Kate and Victoria looked to Ms. Grant with their mouths wide open in shock and found that Ms. Grant was similarly afflicted. Max had looked more peaceful than Victoria had ever seen her.
Max looked up, a little stunned to find her three travelling companions waiting for her outside. She cringed a little and walked over to them. "Hey."
None of them knew how to respond to that oddity, so Victoria took it upon herself. "Hey back."
She looked more timid than she had in a week, but Max looked right at Ms. Grant and said, "I'm sorry. I had an emergency with a relative here in San Francisco. My phone died otherwise I would have let you know."
Ms. Grant took a deep breath and breathed a sigh of relief. "Now I understand why Principal Wells drank as much as he did, you kids can be a handful and I only have three of you right now."
Max smiled at that. "I need to rest. I'm sure you're hungry but I just ate, so if you want to go out to dinner that's fine. If you two want to come with me that's fine too."
"Room service," was Victoria's simple response. Kate nodded and the three girls started to make their way to their room, while Ms. Grant made her way to the bar.
Victoria was still shaking as they entered the hotel room. Once the door was closed Victoria turned to Max on the verge of tears.
"Victoria, I need you to do something for me. Get out your cell phone."
Unsure of what Max was getting at, she grabbed her phone out of her purse.
Max suddenly looked a little woozy as she said, "Now look at the group text you sent earlier when you were worried about me. The third entry is Juliet responding, Um, thought you were with her, is something wrong? Need me to investigate?" She looked a little more woozy, "And the second to last entry is Brooke telling you no, and that Warren hadn't heard from me either."
Victoria checked her phone to see that Max was exactly right.
"How?" A moment after asking Victoria's eyes went big. "You mean?" Victoria sat down on the bed, the picture becoming so much clearer to her now.
Max made sure that Victoria couldn't misinterpret her response. Max walked right over to Victoria, grabbed her face with a little more force than she might have normally used and kissed her in a way that put most movie kisses to shame.
Kate for her part had to look away—not because two girls kissing was bad, but because it seemed like such a private moment that she was embarrassed to be part of it.
Victoria had kissed her fair share of people, but none had been like this one that Max was planting on her right now. The initial shock of it subsided into enjoyment, and finally disappointment as Max finally pulled away and broke the most electrifying kiss she had ever had.
"Wowser," Victoria said.
"Hey, that's my line," Max said back to her with a smile. Victoria stuck her tongue out in response.
Kate looked confused. "What's going on, I think I missed something, before that something I didn't need to see."
Max laughed a little at that. "It's a long story Kate."
Victoria looked up, finally catching a little bit of composure after that earth-shattering kiss. "I explained some of it to her already, when you went missing."
"Ah," Max said, looking a bit sheepish. "I know what you went through last night Victoria, and I'm truly sorry that I put you through it and I hope you can forgive me in time." She looked over at Kate. "My rewind power came back when I leaned in to kiss Victoria last night, I ran from the room freaking, not realizing that it was at the exact moment Victoria professed feelings for me."
Kate nodded in understanding. "Well, I'm glad you're back. But what are you going to do?"
Max shrugged her shoulders. "I still have a lot to figure out."
Victoria shook her head still confused herself. "Wait, then where the fuck have you been this whole time that you had us worried."
Taking a deep breath Max laid back on the bed. "Order your room service, this is going to be a very weird story."
Responses to reviews: I just let the story come to me as I write it—which means in a weird sense (if you are a writer and understand characters you'll know exactly what I mean here) I don't know all the aspects of the story, I discover it just like you the readers do. For example, when I first started I had a pretty clear picture in my mind who CC was, and a review nailed it on the head. However as the story progressed I realized that CC couldn't be who I thought they were—the big one for me was when CC texted Max. I will say this though, there have been some comments that are getting close, but no one has quite nailed it on the head. All will be revealed in the next chapter, and I really hope you like it!